The Stories Of One

I have no idea how many pictures I have taken over the past ten months but it is many many thousands.

I did not have time to take pictures today so am posting just a few pictures of single individuals I have photographed over my time so far in Alaska.

These are stories of one............

I passed by the man in the picture above on a very cold but very sunny day sometime in February.

I was riding a borrowed bicycle, had waited patiently until mid-morning and until the fog that lay heavy and low along the channel had cleared, and rode out to Thane.

I did not know what was out there but needed to be outside on a very lovely day, so dressed warm and headed out.

The day turned into a wonderful and exciting day of exploration - of riding, of hiking a trail at the end of the road that I unexpectedly found, of stopping at every beach entrance on the way back into town to walk and picture take and enjoy the day.

I had noticed this man on the way out of town, and while making my way back into town saw him again, apparently engrossed in whatever it was that he was doing.

I walked on the beach greatly enjoying the channel and the Douglas mountains, and every once in a while glancing over to the elderly man, all the time curious as to what he was up to.

Finally I summoned the courage to do what does not come easily for me - I approached him and started up a conversation.

We ended up talking for a good while.  A nice and easy-going man who was doing exactly what I was doing - finding reasons to be outside.

My reasons were about riding and exercise and exploration and picture taking.

His reason was panning for gold.

He was apparently moderately successful at it, but while talking to him I realized that the "what" (as in what he was doing) was as much of an excuse to be out as my "what". 

Regardless, for a new resident of this city who was lonely and still trying to find her way around, it was very nice to have such a good and positive conversation with a kind gentleman..............

This picture was taken at Auke Bay in May.

I was standing at the end of one of the parking lots that overlooks Statter Harbor on a very warm and sunny late afternoon, and this young woman walked past me without seeing me or speaking to me.

She climbed down large boulders adjacent to the parking lot, walked along the beach a short way and sat on more large rocks close to the harbor.

She sat unmoving and staring at the water - perhaps not even really seeing the water at all.

Introspective, deeply in thought, seemingly troubled.............

A picture of me also taken in May.

Early in May there is a celebration day on a Saturday known as Juneau Day.

On that day many of the tourist sites, city landmarks, museums and other areas of real interest are either free or very low cost for the residents of Juneau.

This event is held just a few weeks before the cruise ships and their hundreds of thousands of tourists take over the town for five months.

It is a very real gift to the locals, while at the same time providing these places with an opportunity to "work out the kinks" before summer kicks in in earnest.

This was the first time I had been on the Mt Roberts Tramway (although not the first time I had been up Mt Roberts), and I had a very very great time up there...........

While posting this blog I searched through my files for two pictures that I wanted to include.

One was a picture taken Out the Road of a man sitting on rocks with the snow capped Chilkats in the background.

The second was of a young man sleeping soundly on the grass in the sun at Marine Park.

He was using a large stuffed teddy bear as a pillow and I shamelessly took a picture of him.

Couldn't find either of those, but below is another picture of another young man snoozing in the sun.

Nobody thinks badly of people who lay in the sun, sleep in the sun, read in the sun, watch boats and planes and people in the sun, sit wherever they want to in the sun.

Marine Park is just LIKE that in the summer.

A wonderful, entertaining, relaxing, exciting place to commune with like minded individuals.

A special place downtown.........

This is one of many para-gliders I have watched this past summer as they stepped off Mt Roberts and proceeded to fly.............

LC sitting in the grass also up on Mt Roberts..........

My youngest son Chris proudly holding a fish that he caught and that we ate that same night.

He caught it on a cold and damp morning at the lake behind Amalga Harbor.

Chris bar-b-qued it on a grill that we hauled out to Eagle Beach that same evening.

We ended up throwing the last piece of fish into the water only partially cooked, after seeing a black bear wandering along the shoreline across the river from us, and near the Boy Scout Trail. 

It was almost dark, and after seeing the bear and then a very large porcupine walking along the sidewalk close to us we decided that the critters were starting to move and it was about the right time for us to head for the house..........

We ran into this young man at Mendenhall Glacier close to the waterfall over the summer.

He and a couple of young friends had spent a good deal of time (as many other people had that day as well) making a large rock tower.

This particular day there were tourists everywhere and there were rock towers everywhere, and this particular tower was actually larger than most.

Somehow the stupid rubber duck that LC and I had been carting around and taking pictures of all day ended up in a conversation with these young people.

And then somehow it seemed like a great idea to add our duck to their tower.  The seeming crowning touch.

After a few minutes of dicey balancing, words of inspiration from his friends, and breath holding by all of us, our duck successfully topped these visitor's tower.

Two thumbs up............

LC in the sun, on the walk-to island adjacent to Auke Village Recreation Area.

It was at this time and in this place that I began to realize that the man I was in love with was not happy here............

My child in Haines close to the Canadian border............

Early in the summer on a very wet and very cold day at Eagle Beach.

It was a wonderful day and we had the place to ourselves...........

Fisherman on the rocks at Amalga Harbor..........

A zip liner zip lining on Douglas Island on one more cold and rainy day this past summer..........

LC on one of his first fishing escapades at Echo Cove........

Fish cleaning also at Echo Cove............

Me successfully making it down the little kids hill up at Eaglecrest Ski Resort in February.

I felt pretty good about making it down while staying upright, and felt even better that I hadn't re-screwed up my still recovering knee.

I had knee surgery in December just a few weeks before moving to Juneau and had consciously tried to both strengthen and protect it.

I had turned down opportunities to ice skate, and had been careful when hiking in the ice (which I did a lot of), but when the opportunity arose to receive a low-cost ski lesson, equipment rental and lift package with colleagues I could not turn down that opportunity.

Actually, at first I did turn it down, still afraid to mess with the knee.

But the day before the lesson I went up to Eaglecrest for the first time to watch a lighted ski demonstration, and to enjoy fireworks and bonfires in the dead of night in the mountains.

Once I did that I was hooked, and decided to give skiing a shot.

During the lesson I had one scary knee issue but came out of it OK, and then proceeded to have a really outstanding time.

I loved it.   Every moment of it..............

One day during the spring I grabbed a handful of files, disgustedly walked out of my office and drove to another and more quiet building.

I walked into the building, searched around for an unused space to work, and proceeded to spread papers and files and a calculator all across two tables.

I was completely engrossed in work even though there were occasional people who walked past me.

They neither bothered me nor distracted me from the task I was working on, until all of a sudden I unexpectedly heard a piano playing music behind me.

I spun around in my chair to see who was playing very beautiful classical music.

I recognized the man as someone who was responsible for room set up and breakdown, and my work was temporarily forgotten as I sat both mesmerized with the music and taken aback that this seeming "front line worker" played with such astonishing skill and obvious love.

There is always so much more to people than you can see immediately.

Sometimes it takes something BIG to force you to slow down enough to reassess what you know..........or what you think you know about someone..............

And finally a fly fisherman at the lake behind Amalga Harbor...........